StockyMcStock

Okay i just did all this and it will work just fine. drill out the brass plug just below the cam, then insert grub screws into each of the holes in the bearing supply face. Drill a restrictor through the one which now supplies oil (same size as the other ones in the cam tunnel) and leave the other one blank. There is an easy way of disabling the VCT too, just take the big bolt out of the end of the cam and weld a plug in to one end of it. Viola, no VCT and a nice high pressure oil supply to the cam bearing.

Okay i think i have the VCT problem sorted. Here goes: Looking from the front of the engine, there are two oil holes for the front cam bearing. The one on the left is connected to the high pressure oil feed which normally comes in from the VCT oil line in the block. Since it's now welded up, that feed is not getting any oil whatsoever. This feed is definately NOT connected to the high-pressure feed rail which supplies all the lifters on the inlet side. I thought it was, but on closer inspection it is definately not. The front cam bearing relies on this block feed to supply it with oil and not sieze. The second hole (on the right) is connected to the first hole via the cam bearing face, which has a trench milled in it. This hole drains down into the head, to be later returned to the sump by whichever means possible. It only does this when the VCT solenoid is powered OFF. When it is energized, the solenoid blocks this drain and high pressure oil is forced into the end of the cam where the VCT gizmo is located which then activates it. So what does this mean? It means if you don't re-feed the first oil supply then your bearing will run dry and probably sieze. The good news is there is an easier way out of it than an external line. looking at the head front-on, there's a small copper plug just below the solenoid which the manufacturers used to block off a hole that they drilled in there to connect the oil galleries up due to a small offset. The plug can be drilled out pretty easily. Luckily, it's directly in line with the high pressure gallery which feeds all of the lifters! So just drill a hole of comparable size to the oil supply hole through there to connect it up to the high pressure gallery and feed it with oil. There's one more problem though, doing this will drop the oil pressure to that gallery dramatically whenever the VCT solenoid is off. NOT GOOD! you can grub screw up the oil drain but this will turn the VCT solenoid on the whole time, also not good! What you will need to do is either replace the inlet cam gear with a non-VCT one or block up the oil holes IN THE CAMSHAFT ITSELF which allow the oil into the front of the cam. This will stop oil getting to the VCT lobe altogether. I'm going to go out now and pull the gear apart and see if there's an easy way to disable it from the inside. otherwise i'm going to get a non-VCT inlet cam gear. I think this idea is a lot neater, easier and cheaper than making up an external line from somewhere else to supply the VCT again. So yeah, don't try and run an RB30DET with the VCT gallery just welded up, you need to get oil there somehow! p.s. Luke thanks for telling me this, i went over the whole thing again and figured out you were right. lucky bastard.

never heard of an RB30ET having oil pump or balancer issues, especially not at 6500rpm? some of the drag guys go up around 7500 with the SOHC head but you can bet your titties they're not running standard oil pumps. haven't heard of many of them changing their balancers either. i guess if you're going to rev the bejesus out of it for a sustained period of time frequently, you've gotta think about these things. but for a street driven car it's just not an issue IMHO.

just going on what the garrett supplier told me when he measured the wheels. the one he measured was definately smaller than the standard GT40 compressor wheel but not by much. maybe there's different revisions of the ford turbo out there?

cryo treating homogenises the material, it doesn't make it stronger. it could work, yes, but the main reason your pump will fail is because of sustained VERY high RPM or the rear cover bolts coming loose. fix and/or avoid these two situations and it will be fine.

great turbos, only difference between this and the garrett GT35/40 1.06 rear is the *slightly* smaller compressor wheel and different A/R on the thing. with a GT40 compressor though, it's not really an issue, they're capable of big airflow!

very interested in the VL turbo oil pump and the spark plug cover. wouldn't pay more than $120 for the pump but, seen em go for less on other forums. if you'll take $120 for it, and $15 for the plug cover i'll take both.

interestingly, i've just bought a GT40 (bush bearing core) and it is made in england. just thought i'd throw that in.

I think SydneyKid said he has gotten rid of the VCT on an RB30DET while fitting aftermarket cams - but not 100% sure if he had to re-route the supply or not. Also it would be useful to know if you can leave the VCT solenoid in there or does a different plug have to be used when it's disconnected.

seeking absolute clarification on this one: i was under the impression that the front cam bearing will still get oil if the VCT oil feed in the head is welded up. a guy i know reckons it won't, and he went to lengths to re-route a fresh oil supply in there. now has anyone actually done a 25/30 and simply welded it up with no problems? still running fine after XXXX km's?

sticks out a long way - what car was it made for and did it clear everything? also i suspect that's not a GT35/40 in the pic - appears to be a *bit* larger. perhaps the flange is the same though.

yep it's only an issue on the R33 and R34 heads, anything with VCT actually. overlay the RB30 head gasket onto the head and it becomes pretty evident what needs to be done. there gallery is shaped differently to avoid the VCT hole, but still have enough cross-section for water flow through the head.

so if it doesn't make a difference - why are the Apexi part numbers for the series 1 and series 2 different? edit: they're not any more - used to be however. must have changed recently?

series 1 or series 2? and whereabouts are you located?

odd angle on the turbine flange there - you sure it's going to clear the rocker cover and bonnet? so we can take that as confirmation that the R34 NEO head fits straight onto the RB30 block? all water/oil galleries lined up fine? the VCT looks exactly the same as earlier models, in fact the whole head looks exactly the same as mine.

get an engine builder with a nice accurate dial guage to measure them properly for you, there's not much margin for error in bore sizes! the idea with boring is to bore the cylinders evenly out by the same amount, which should be the smallest amount possible. 20thou will do it i would say, pretty easily. yes it will increase the capacity of the engine, by a bees' dick.

Scribble: a "damaged" bore would normally be in the order of large, deep scratches in the wall of the cylinder. anything you can get your fingernail into is too big in my experience! however, an out-of-round bore is almost as bad. the bore wears in an oval shape, as the rods "push" the piston to the lateral sides of the bore on each stroke. check the out-of-round specs with a dial guage of suitable accuracy, if it's greater than factory specs then you need to bore the cylinders out to a slightly larger size so that they are exactly round again. this obviously needs to be done in a machine shop! SydneyKid: i'm planning on keeping the standard cams so my rev limit is going to be about 6200rpm where i hear they start to nose off. hopefully it will last as long as your engine has, that's quite a feat for an engine up around 500bhp. i don't think mine will be spending much time up around that rev limit either, it's a twincharge (GT40 turbo + Eaton M90 blower) so with bulk torque available everywhere i think it should be OK for a street car.

i need the engine loom if you're willing to separate it - will pay good money as well.

drill in from the turbo side until you see/feel the bit go into the high pressure gallery on the other side, direcly opposite the oil filter. this is the main high pressure gallery where all the bottom end bearing supply galleries are connected to. it's about 15cm worth of drilling IIRC. p.s. if you're in brisbane i have a FREE series 2 block (all bores are fine) which you can come and grab - it will be easier than getting the holes drilled and tapped trust me, i had to do it!

yes but the powerFC model numbers are different for the series 1 and series 2 - i'm assuming it's because of the coil differences. what i want to know is will your FC work on a series 1, or a series 2. it will not work properly on both, as the two are different.

anyone know for sure if the powerFC will work on a series 1 RB25? did the series 1.5 have an external ignitor for the coil packs?

why not just make up a custom tubular one? i guarantee a decent tubular manifold will work better than the Apexi.

if the boost is still being controlled okay then there is nothing to worry about. sounds like it was badly adjusted before and wasn't sealing properly.

if the haltech has a "gross fuel map trim" function like most ECU's do (mostly used to quickly diagnose fuelling problems) then you can probably get away with trimming the whole fuel map by a factor of 370/740 = 0.5 and it should run OK till you get it to the tuners. just don't flog it on the way there!

The RB30 spigot bushes for both the manual versions (different gearbox) are the same. the input shafts on the RB30 manual boxes and the R33 box are identical. so the ID of the bush is fine, i would suggest that the OD is also the same on all RB series boxes. buy one, see if it fits. if it doesn't, take it back.